"Bombardment"
Creator: Noah
Magic Bullet
Max Attack Range: 1.16 km
Max Kill Radius: Within 6 meters
Uses a fire stone as the spell medium with a tungsten shell.
It is constructed to explode immediately upon leaving the shell.
Noah slowly propped up the heavy Annihilator and rubbed his aching shoulder.
"I forgot to disperse the force. Dammit, that hurts."
The pure destructive power was completely immense, but the insane recoil was practically on par with a tank cannon, meaning a normal person's shoulder would have been completely shattered into pieces.
Even though he had recently raised his Durability stat and knew his stats definitely weren't weak, half of his upper body was still faintly numb from the violent shock.
"As for the actual power... it's barely passable, I guess."
Noah watched closely as the massive Goliath, which had just been violently knocked back, suddenly planted one of its thick legs heavily on the ground to quickly steady itself.
He knew well that while his last attack was definitely effective, it was still far from lethal, meaning at most, it was just hovering on the level of "having an effect."
"ROAR!!!!"
The Goliath's terrifying face slowly emerged from the thick smoke and dust of the explosion, looking even more violently enraged as it immediately launched a brutal attack right at the Loki Familia members scattered at its feet.
It lifted its massive right foot high into the air and forcefully stomped the ground.
In that exact moment, it felt as if the entire floor of the Dungeon trembled violently from the crushing blow, totally breaking the balance of several front-liners who were standing too close and sending them flying helplessly into the air from the sheer wind pressure alone.
The Goliath revealed a deeply grotesque cruel smile as it looked down at the helpless ants scattered below it, its massive palm swinging down with full lethal force, ready to completely flatten them.
Suddenly, a blinding golden figure violently rushed up from below.
Upon reaching a position directly beneath the falling adventurers, she expertly rode a concentrated gale, violently surging upstream straight against the current.
"O wind."
Ais's figure was completely dazzling as, under everyone's totally awestruck gaze, she raised her sword tightly in her hand and thrust it directly at the Goliath's massive descending arm.
More violent wind rapidly coiled around the sword, heavily compressing and condensing right onto the sharp blade.
BOOM!
The massive blast of wind violently collided with the Goliath's descending palm, instantly knocking both of them back from the sheer impact as Ais's figure retreated rapidly through the air.
"Thank you, Miss Ais!"
"We're saved!"
"Quick, regroup!"
Using the wind to completely negate the heavy damage from her fall, Ais smoothly flipped in the air and landed perfectly on her feet again, expressionlessly continuing her relentless assault directly on the floor boss.
Her brutal approach was honestly nothing short of totally reckless.
Watching this unfold, Riveria simply covered her face and shook her head with a heavy sigh, though she honestly wasn't particularly worried about the girl.
After all, with Ariel fully activated, it was only a matter of time before Ais could brutally defeat the Goliath even in a strict one-on-one fight, since both her wind magic and her Avenger skill gave her the absolute qualifications to challenge monsters way above her own level.
To Ais, a mere Floor Boss like Goliath was basically just a slightly tough giant slab of meat that was a bit tiring to chop up.
Noah was also perfectly well aware of this fact.
He forcefully flexed his numb arm, this time properly preparing in advance to safely disperse the heavy force, and hoisted the Annihilator back onto his aching shoulder once more.
He had just successfully tested Bombardment, so next up, it was finally time to try out a "BUFF" with a supportive effect by selectively targeting a few of the main combatants from the second string.
Phase observation, locked on.
Alicia, Raul, and Aki.
After successfully marking the three of them, Noah quickly changed the complex loading sequence and activated a brand-new spell: Shadow Bullet.
Regular magic bullets would naturally emit a highly unique, bright glow depending on their specific attribute, which would not only completely expose his trajectory and allow the enemy to easily counter it, but would also heavily distract his uninvolved allies, posing a pretty serious risk.
Shadow Bullet, however, could provide a powerful concealing effect to the projectile, and while it didn't make the shot completely disappear or become totally invisible, it could massively reduce the potential risks he had just estimated.
He firmly pulled the trigger, and completely concealed beams of magical light silently shot out from the Annihilator.
"Soar on the wind, swift wind."
The cat-person girl, Aki, who was currently completely in the middle of combat, suddenly sensed something rushing toward her, and although her sharp brain didn't explicitly signal any fatal danger, this was a brutal battle with a literal floor boss, meaning she didn't dare to be careless for even a second.
So, flawlessly using the momentum of her charge, the cat girl simply kicked off hard with both legs, launching herself high into the air before supporting herself with one hand on the ground and evading the invisible projectile with extreme speed.
Noah clearly saw the girl's fluid movements through his advanced scope and couldn't help but praise her from the bottom of his heart, 'Beautiful'.
To be able to physically detect even a heavily concealed shot was way beyond just being sharp, and what's more, she had actually perfectly dodged the initial attack.
It was truly impressive.
However, this was a heavily guided snipe that absolutely couldn't be dodged.
Aki, still hanging briefly in mid-air, suddenly noticed that the invisible "attack" aimed at her actually hadn't missed at all, instead it had violently changed its flight path at an incredibly tight angle, hugging the ground closely and heading straight for her again.
"So fast! And it can even auto-track?! Where the hell is this kind of attack even coming from?!"
Aki tightly gritted her teeth, totally bracing herself to take the heavy hit, but in the very next moment, she suddenly found her own physical speed increasing dramatically.
Totally instinctively, the exact moment her feet touched the ground, she violently burst forth with her absolute top speed, her entire body literally vanishing from the spot in an instant.
Aki looked down at the soft blue magic power gently flowing around her body, feeling utterly and completely bewildered.
Hadn't she just been hit?
'This feeling... was it Ais's wind?' The cat-person girl quickly looked up at Ais, who was currently acting exactly like a berserker in mid-air as she unleashed a frantic relentless assault on the floor boss, and totally dismissed the thought.
'No, this wind was way more stable... if Ais's wind was pure, violent and destructive, then this strange wind felt like it had been meticulously and incredibly carefully woven.'
"My body... suddenly feels so light?"
As if it absolutely couldn't stand her being in a daze during a fight, the floor boss's fist came violently crashing down straight from above her.
The other members finally noticed that Aki hadn't made a preemptive move to evade the massive strike, and they all instantly grew terrified.
"Aki, watch out!!"
"Damn it, there's no time!"
"Aki!!"
The cat girl suddenly looked right up at the massive fist that completely blotted out the sky above her, feeling the immense crushing pressure.
She rose slightly, her toes barely touching the ground and feeling an absolutely unprecedented lightness in her entire body, she effortlessly unleashed her new speed.
The girl's figure literally blurred into a thin black line.
For a brief moment, Riveria who had been just about to urgently intervene, was totally shocked to find that even with her insane Level 6 dynamic vision, she was actually showing signs of briefly losing track of the girl's movements.
"So fast!"
'High-tier Level 4... no, that was an agility stat almost completely comparable to a low-tier Level 5!'
'That Aki actually...'
The cat girl suddenly appeared right beside the others as if she had literally teleported, looking down at her own body with the exact same look of total disbelief as her Familia members.
She could distinctly feel that it absolutely wasn't her actual Agility stat that had increased, because her core stats were completely unchanged, the true key was simply this insane "lightness."
After quickly getting used to this incredible feeling, she even felt like her former self had practically been living under incredibly heavy, restrictive shackles.
Now, she felt an absolutely unprecedented sense of total freedom.
Ais also noticed the change over there and couldn't help but exclaim in total amazement.
"Aki is so agile... It's almost exactly like... the wind."
Meanwhile, Raul who was carefully circling the floor boss's massive feet, forcefully swung his weapon.
Just as he had been doing until now, he gripped the heavy sword tightly with both hands and brought it down as hard as he could.
But honestly, there was absolutely no real determination in the slash he swung, because in his hands, the sharp sword seemed to have totally lost its edge, making it feel like he was just swinging it with a desperate prayer in his heart.
He and the other few front-liners were totally responsible for severing the Goliath's thick tendons, because when dealing with giant monsters, completely destroying their basic ability to stand and walk was absolutely the best strategy.
If they didn't, ninety percent of their comrades wouldn't be able to easily attack the monster's high vitals and could only stand by uselessly, slowly chipping away at its massive health pool.
But the Goliath's incredibly tough hide was insanely difficult to cut through.
His sword wasn't exactly a first-class weapon, but rather just a decent-quality mass-produced model, meaning a quick stroll through Orario would easily reveal at least a dozen random people carrying the exact same thing.
With absolutely no combat skills and totally average stats—one could honestly even say mediocre—for Raul to try and sever the Goliath's thick tendons with sheer arm strength was basically like trying to grind tofu with a massive millstone, it was incredibly slow, agonizing work.
However, just as he was desperately praying and praying, it seemed a god had actually answered him.
He suddenly felt the heavy weapon in his hands become significantly lighter—not just lighter, but far sharper, or rather, completely more dangerous.
A faint, glowing light fully enveloped the sword, and with his very next slash, even though he still put his absolute all into it, the resulting effect was worlds apart from before.
The sword violently plunged directly into the Goliath's thick muscles, leaving only the hilt completely outside, which Raul quickly gripped tightly.
As a reasonably experienced adventurer, Raul definitely wouldn't hesitate now, deciding he'd just figure out what he didn't understand later.
Right now, all he needed to do was cut with all his might and completely sever the Goliath's Achilles tendon!
"Aaaaaaaahhhhh! I'm gonna use absolutely all my strength!!!"
Raul violently pushing the glowing sword forward, completely transformed into a raging bull and amidst a massive horrific spray of monster blood, it literally looked as if he were violently surfing on a crimson river.
"ROAR!!!!"
The Goliath cried out in absolute, agonizing pain, its massive center of gravity violently shifting entirely to its uninjured leg.
This was the exact moment the battle-hardened veterans of the Loki Familia had been waiting for.
As the front-liners all violently attacked in perfect unison, their combined strength focused on a single weak point and totally erupted, completely destroying the Goliath's remaining support and sending the towering giant crashing heavily down to the ground.
"Now's our chance!"
...
The supportive effects of "Swift Wind" and "Extreme Cut" seemed pretty good, providing a massive highly visible boost to both Aki's and Raul's overall combat power.
The Spell-Weaver definitely wasn't a literal stat editor, it absolutely couldn't directly cheat and permanently modify raw stats, whether they were others' or his own.
Otherwise, he would have long since modified all his own stats to straight nines across the board.
Both of these buffs were essentially just highly complex manipulations of the wind and weight elements.
By perfectly reducing a target's physical weight and efficiently adding external magic, even though it absolutely couldn't perfectly replicate what Ais did with Ariel, this highly effective knock-off version of Swift Wind could easily be applied to other targets to completely turn the tide of a battle.